Rapist’s friend wins jail term cut

A MAN jailed for a year after lying to help his friend evade police yesterday had his sentence halved after appeal judges accepted he did not know his pal was accused of a North Wales child kidnap and rape.

A MAN jailed for a year after lying to help his friend evade police yesterday had his sentence halved after appeal judges accepted he did not know his pal was accused of a North Wales child kidnap and rape.

Mark William Bowers, 33, of Northenden, Manchester, admitted lying to detectives investigating the horrific case in which a 15-year-old girl was kidnapped in Wrexham and driven across North Wales and raped.

A van, previously owned by Bowers, had been linked to the crime and, when asked what had happened to it, he denied knowing where it was.

In fact, he had sold it to his friend, Stockport man Alan Weston, a convicted rapist also known as Alan Grant, who was later jailed for life for the kidnap and rape of the young girl from Wrexham.

Yesterday, two top judges sitting at London’s Criminal Appeal Court ruled that Bowers’ 12-month sentence, imposed for perverting the course of justice at Mold Crown Court in February, was “manifestly excessive” and slashed it to six months.

Giving the judgment, Mrs Justice Rafferty, who sat with Mr Justice Wyn Williams, described how Bowers had known that Weston had a criminal history, but not the sexual nature of it.

When detectives visited his house to ask him about the van, he thought it was because his friend had been involved in a road accident and lied, before calling Weston to warn him.

When arrested, he admitted lying to help his friend, but denied knowing anything about the offences for which police were pursuing Weston.

His counsel, John Philpotts, argued that a year in prison in those circumstances was too long.

Allowing the appeal, the judge said Bowers, although guilty of a crime, had become embroiled in a case of which he had absolutely no grasp.